Still, I'll Rise (Poem)

Our DNA encodes the desire to live,

Yet our steady march to death is prescriptive.

Physically, we’re just made of dirt, water and clay.

Yet we do all we can to delay that fateful day,

That’s the limit of what many understand.

With that, they’re content, and seek no ‘other hand’.

Folks say in life, only two things are certain:

Death and taxes. That’s such a narrow version!

So…

As across our world righteous lights shine far less bright,

And evil reaches unimaginable heights,

Thoughts turn to what happens when someone dies.

In strong faith, to this I reply …I’ll rise.

The Bible iteratively attests,

Strong, innate desires beating in our breasts.

To live forever, that was God’s original plan,

Even in eternity past, before time began. ¹

Created in His image, spirit, soul and body,

Some think the spirit and soul can die, but that’s folly.

Our bodies are merely a draft copy,

About this, The Bible is not foggy. ²

From the oldest down to the youngest,

The most righteous and the most wicked,

To each, a permanent body is promised,

Thus, from every grave, there will be a harvest. ³

Confronting the eventuality of my demise,

I believe more than only what I see with my eyes.

And what I believe, for you I summarize:

Graves are God’s waiting room. When He calls …I’ll rise.

The key decision we each must make,

Is when and to what shall we awake?

To all, a binary­ choice God has appointed.

Re. other notions, folks will be disappointed.

The first is to rise for Christ’s Millennial Reign, ⁴

Then remain with Him where GLORY shall never wane.

The second is to rise for His White Throne Judgment.

In the lake of fire, most will be cast for torment. 

God has made our choice simple, not complicated,

Requiring child-like faith in Him, inculcated. ⁵

Embrace His blissful first choice, that’s what I advise.

Either way, my Friend, with or before you …still, I’ll rise.

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¹ ‘He [God] has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.’ (Ecclesiastes 3:11) FYI, time is relative to the rotation of a planet or other rotating, universal body.

² The Bible iteratively attests this. Here are my favorite confirmations:

‘Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.’ (John 5:28-29). NB: He says doing good starts with being born again, accepting Jesus as Savior and Lord. Good works/deeds alone will not get you into Heaven, but they most certainly can keep you out! ‘For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.’ (1Thessalonians 4:14)

‘And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever. Many shall be purified, made white [righteous], and refined, but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand.’ (Daniel 12:2-3,10)  Reader, do you understand?

³ See: Four Birthdays, or Only Three? (Poem)

⁴ See: Millennial Casting Calls (Poem). The prediction that The Lord will consult His Book of [Eternal] Life means not all who rise for The Great White Throne Judgement will be cast into hell. See: Why the Millennial Reign Age (Part 3)

⁵ ‘Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.’ (Matthew 18:2-4)